Heavy forwarders do not need license they come in with a forwarders license which you can enable. now on a hf you can install addons specific to data you want to gather and create inputs to gather data. there has to be a outputs config for forwarder to forward data to indexers in splunk cloud. universal forwarder is entirely diff forwarder and easiest to configure. Install that on a windows or Linux box you want to monitor for logs or metrics data and add and configure respective Addons and point it to a forwarding location. and you should be all set.
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